Zizia Species, Golden Alexanders, Golden Zizia

I cared for this perennial some in front of a new house in a sunny landscape in southeast PA for a customer. It grows well in full sun an...Read Mored well-drained soil or does well in part-shade and moist or draining wet soils. I've found it wild in French Creek State Park in southeast PA on woodland edges. It is not a well-known forb and is only occasionally planted. It is offered more by native plant nurseries than conventional ones, though large conventional nurseries with lots of perennials offered often have some. It is an easy, reliable perennial native from Saskatchewan to New Brunswick south to around the Gulf of Mexico. It is a short-lived perennial that continues by self-sowing. It is deer resistant. Many butterflies and short-tongued pollinators love the flowers, and swallowtail butterfly caterpillars feed on the foliage as they do many members of the Parsley Family, which I still call Umbelliferae.

This is my second year with Golden Alexanders growing in clay soil, partly shaded. They've done well. Nice flowers, nice foliage (tall)...Read More. Flowered in the spring, but now (July) I have new flowers on new growth. Seedheads are attractive.

Posted in August 2008: I really wanted to grow this, but rabbits and groundhogs have eaten it over and over. I planted bulk seed in a fl...Read Moreower bed in sun, and many plants are still alive after all the abuse from the small mammals, but they've never gotten big enough to flower or thrive before being eaten off again.

Updated May 2014: What seemed like one small plant survived and began to prosper. Now an entire corner of the bed is covered in Golden Alexander. Not necessarily invasive, but maybe a bit aggressive? Still I'm glad that it survived and has prospered.

Likes boggy areas and wet areas - will grow in partial shade - can only be found in specialize wildflower nurseries. The reason for this ...Read Moreis that it have less (by the avearge person) beauty - it have flowers that look like a yellow Queen Anne Laces but smaller in size. Otherwise this native will add diversity to a open wooded wetland (it doesn't compete well with cattails and other aggressive water plants.)